Systems and methods for organizing and displaying electronic media content

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed for displaying available or recommended electronic multimedia content to a user, including electronic media content on the Internet. According to one implementation, a method is provided that includes receiving a request from a user, the request specifying electronic media content desired by the user; analyzing an indexed web history of a plurality of other users, based on the request for desired content; and selecting and sorting a subset of available content groups, based on the request for desired content and the indexed web history. The method also includes selecting and sorting, for each selected and sorted content group, a subset of available content; providing instructions to display, to a user, the selected and sorted content groups along a first axis of a two-dimensional grid; and further providing instructions to display, to the user, the selected available content for each content group along a second axis of the two-dimensional grid.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/313,439 filed Mar. 12, 2010, for Systems And MethodsFor Organizing And Displaying Electronic Media Content, the entirety ofwhich is included herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the organization and display ofelectronic media content, including available or recommended electronicmedia content. More particularly and without limitation, the presentdisclosure relates to systems and methods for the Identification,ranking, and display of available or recommended electronic mediacontent on the Internet.

2. Background Information

Traditionally, broadcasters of television multimedia content have usedelectronic programming guides (EPG) to display available televisioncontent in a two-dimensional grid. EPGs typically display a list oftelevision channels on the vertical axis, and a broadcast time on thehorizontal axis. Thus, the arrangement of content in the two-dimensionalgrid is used to convey information about the content (namely, channeland time).

EPGs are primarily used as a way to browse broadcast television contentthat is currently on-air or about to be on-air, and to browse recordedcontent on time shifting devices, such as a digital video recorder(DVR). EPGs may be useful for displaying available content that onlyairs at specific times, but EPGs have not previously been used fordisplaying web content that can be selected and viewed by an Internetuser at any moment.

On the Internet, people usually discover and view multimedia and otherelectronic media content in one or more fundamentally different ways:keyword searching, browsing collections, selecting related content, andlink sharing. Because the content may be viewed at any time, it istypically just listed in a one-dimensional queue that fails to conveyany information about the content by virtue of its arrangement. Forexample, a common way to browse a video collection is to display a listof images that the user can click to watch the videos. A user interfacemay be provided to allow the user to narrow the displayed list bycategory, television show, tag, date produced, source, or popularity.However, the list may nevertheless fail to sufficiently conveyadditional information, guidance, or suggested content to the user. Theuser is usually required to determine which video to select withoutknowing whether it will likely be enjoyable. As a result, users of theInternet often view content that they do not necessarily appreciate.Undesirable content can lead to users traveling away from the contentsites, which may result in an attendant decrease in advertising revenue.As a corollary, the successful display and recommendation of electronicmedia content can be useful in attracting and retaining Internet users,thereby increasing online advertising revenue.

As a result, there is a need for improved systems and methods fororganizing and displaying electronic media content, including availableor recommended electronic media content. There is also a need forsystems and methods for the identification, ranking, and/or display ofavailable or recommended electronic media content on the Internet.

SUMMARY

Consistent with the present disclosure, computerized systems and methodsare provided for organizing and displaying electronic media content,including available or recommended electronic media content. Embodimentsof the disclosure also relate to the identification, ranking, and/ordisplay of available or recommended electronic media content on theInternet. In accordance with certain embodiments, computerized systemsand methods are provided for organizing and displaying electronic mediacontent over the Internet.

In accordance with one disclosed exemplary embodiment, a method isdisclosed for displaying electronic multimedia content to a user. Themethod includes receiving a request from a user, the request specifyingelectronic media content desired by the user; and analyzing an indexedweb history of a plurality of other users based on the request fordesired content. The method further includes: selecting and sorting asubset of available content groups, based on the request for desiredcontent and the indexed web history; and selecting and sorting, for eachselected and sorted content group, a subset of available content, basedon the desired content and the indexed web history. The method furtherincludes: providing instructions to display, to the user, the selectedand sorted subset of content groups along a first axis of atwo-dimensional grid; and further providing instructions to display, tothe user, the selected and sorted subset of available content for eachcontent group along a second axis of the two-dimensional grid.

In accordance with another disclosed exemplary embodiment, a method isdisclosed for displaying electronic multimedia content to a user. Themethod includes receiving a URL for a web page previously visited by auser; and analyzing an indexed web history of a plurality of other usersbased on the URL. The method further includes: selecting and sorting asubset of available content groups, based on the URL and the indexed webhistory; and selecting and sorting, for each selected and sorted contentgroup, a subset of available content, based on the URL and the indexedweb history. The method further includes: providing instructions todisplay, to the user, the selected and sorted subset of content groupsalong a first axis of a two-dimensional grid; and further providinginstructions to display, to the user, the selected and sorted subset ofavailable content for each content group along a second axis of thetwo-dimensional grid.

In accordance with another disclosed exemplary embodiment, a system isdisclosed for displaying electronic multimedia content to a user. Thesystem includes a web server system configured to receive a request froma user, the request specifying desired electronic media content, adatabase configured to store an indexed web history for a plurality ofother users, and a back-end server system in communication with the webserver and the database. The back-end server system is configured to:analyze the indexed web history of a plurality of other users based onthe request for desired content; select and sort a subset of availablecontent groups based on the request for desired content and the indexedweb history; and select and sort, for each selected and sorted contentgroup, a subset of available content, based on the desired content andthe indexed web history. The back-end server system is furtherconfigured to populate a first axis of a two-dimensional grid with theselected and sorted content groups; and populate a second axis of thetwo-dimensional grid with the selected and sorted available content foreach content group.

Before explaining certain embodiments of the disclosure in detail, it isto be understood that the disclosure is not limited in its applicationto the details of construction and to the arrangements of the componentsset forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings.The disclosure is capable of embodiments in addition to those describedand of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is tobe understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein, aswell as in the abstract, are for the purpose of description and shouldnot be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conceptionupon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basisfor designing other structures, methods, and systems for carrying outthe several purposes of the present disclosure. It is important,therefore, to recognize that the claims should be regarded as includingsuch equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from thespirit and scope of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this disclosure, illustrate several embodiments and aspects ofthe present disclosure, and together with the description, serve toexplain certain principles of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system for displaying electronic mediacontent over the Internet, consistent with embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary method for displaying electronic media overthe Internet, consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts another exemplary method for displaying electronic mediaover the Internet, consistent with embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 4A and 4B depict graphical representations of exemplarymethodologies for selecting subsets of content groups and availablecontent for displaying electronic media over the Internet, consistentwith embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an exemplary two-dimensional grid fordisplaying electronic media over the Internet, consistent withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is an is an illustration of an exemplary three-dimensional gridfor displaying electronic media over the Internet, consistent withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 shows a screenshot of a web programming grid, in which a query ina search bar yields query-related results and navigational tab;

FIG. 8 shows a screenshot of a web programming grid, in which a query ina search bar yields query-related results and navigational tab;

FIG. 9 shows a screenshot of a web programming guide in which a searchbar starts displaying possible queries upon a partial entry of text,consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate exemplary controls for navigating throughthe web programming guide, consistent with embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate the exemplary dimensions available byintroducing key combinations for manipulating the web programming guide,consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C illustrate exemplary user interfaces for fornavigating through the web programming guide, consistent withembodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIGS. 13A and 13B illustrate exemplary responses to directionalitywithin a dimension, depending on prior actions, consistent withembodiments of the present disclosure.

Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.For brevity, several elements in the figures described below arerepresented as monolithic entities. However, as would be understood byone skilled in the art, these elements each may include numerousinterconnected computers and components designed to perform a set ofspecified operations and/or dedicated to a particular geographic region.

Additional objects and advantages will be set forth in part in thedescription which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the embodiments of theinvention. For example, the objects and advantages may be realized andattained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointedout in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the present exemplaryembodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numberswill be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the organization anddisplay of available or recommended electronic media content. Thedisplay of electronic media content may be made in response to a requestfrom a user specifying desired content. Additionally, the display ofelectronic media content may be presented in a multi-dimensional grid,referred to herein as a “web programming guide” (WPG). In one exemplaryembodiment, a novel two-dimensional collaborative filter may be used asthe algorithm for populating the WPG with available or recommendedelectronic media content, such as web content. A WPG, in contrast to atraditional EPG, may display exclusive web content in addition totelevision programming that is available on the Internet. For example,consistent with certain embodiments, a WPG may display a griddedarrangement of web sites, images, video clips, audio clips, streamingmedia, full length television episodes or movies, and/or livebroadcasts.

In one embodiment, the two-dimensional collaborative filer may make useof one collaborative filter to populate suggested groupings of content(e.g. categories, topics, show times, channels, shows, daypartprogramming, actors, directors, watched or favorited by friends (e.g.browse by friend x,y,z), celebrity appearances, shared interests byvideo attributes (e.g. algorithmically determined grouping of videoswatch by people who like 30 rock), etc.) along a first axis of the WPG,and another collaborative filter to populate recommend video content(e.g., either individual videos or shows) and/or other electronic mediacontent within each content grouping, along a second axis of the WPG.Each of the two collaborative filters may receive inputs including oneor more of: the last content item (e.g., video) that was watched by auser prior to the WPG being invoked; the user's selected preferences(e.g., “I like sports”); a history of the user's web history/behavior ahistory of other users' web history/behavior, and simply visiting awebsite or television interface that makes use of the WPG.

Broadly, as will be described in more detail below in relation to theexemplary embodiments of the WPG (see, e.g., the embodiment of FIG. 5 ),the output of the two-dimensional collaborative filter may be displayedin a gridded format, where one axis includes a list of content groupsranked by the first collaborative filter, and the second axis includes alist of content items that belong to each group (ranked within eachgroup using the second collaborative filter). Although one of thedisclosed embodiments includes a two-dimensional grid, it will beappreciated that any number of dimensions may be included, where eachdimension presents content that is rank-ordered using anothercollaborative filter. For example, the grid may comprise three or moredimensions (as shown in FIG. 11 ). Furthermore, although describedherein primarily in relation to video content, the disclosed embodimentsmay be applicable to literally any type of electronic media content,including websites, images, books, articles, songs, presentations, etc.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary embodiment of a system 100 for displayingelectronic media content, within which embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be practiced. As shown in FIG. 1 , a plurality of users102 may be connected to an electronic network 101 and configured tocommunicate with one or more servers of system 100. Users 102 may bepeople who are using any type or combination of personal computers,laptops, components of a computer, set top boxes, 3^(rd) party portals,DVD players, digital video recorder (DVR) platforms, mobile phones ordevices, PDAs, etc., or any other device configured to displaymultimedia content. Although the embodiment of FIG. 1 depicts limitednumbers of clients and servers, it will be appreciated that exemplarysystem 100 may include any number of clients and servers withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure.

Electronic network 101 may represent any combination of networks forproviding digital data communication. Electronic network 101 mayinclude, for example, a local area network (“LAN”), and intranet, and/ora wide area network (“WAN”), e.g., the Internet. In the embodimentsdescribed herein, electronic network 101 may include anypublicly-accessible network or networks and support numerouscommunication protocols, including, but not limited to, hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTP) and transmission control protocol (TCP/IP).

In general, system 100 may include web servers 104, back-end servers106, and an intelligence database 108. System 100 may also include or bedisposed in communication with a content provider 150. Content provider150 may be operated by a third party or by the operator of system 100.Content provider 150 may include web servers 152 and content database154. Electronic network 101 may be connected to one or more of servers104, 106, 152 such that clients 102 may be disposed in communicationwith the servers. It will be appreciated that each of servers 104, 106,152 may include any number or combination of computers, servers, orclustered computing machines, and that databases 108, 154 may eachinclude any number or combination of databases, which may be arranged ina “distributed computing” environment, including large-scale storage(LSS) components and/or distributed caching (DC) components. The serversand databases may be independent devices or may be incorporated into asingle unit of hardware, e.g., a single computer system or single serversystem. In one embodiment, web servers may include a softwareapplication, such as a web service, executing on a computer.

In one embodiment, intelligence database 108 may be configured to storea large volume (millions or more) of pieces of data regarding userpreferences, user web history, content click data, user browserinformation, etc. For example, intelligence database 108 may beconfigured to store and index cookie data collected by the browsers ofmillions of unique users. Meanwhile, content database 154 may beconfigured to store a large volume of different content items, such asvideos, images, etc. Content database 154 may be operated by one or morethird-party content providers 150, or by the operator of web servers 104and back-end servers 106. Alternatively the operator of web servers 104and back-end servers 106 may maintain its own database of content items.Thus, any combination or configuration of web servers 104, back-endservers 106, intelligence database 108, web servers 152, and contentdatabase 154 may be configured to perform the exemplary methods of FIGS.2-4 ; and to generate and display the exemplary WPGs of FIGS. 5 and 6 ,as will be described in more detail below.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary method 200 for displaying available orrecommended electronic media content over the Internet Method 200 mayinclude receiving a request from a user, the request specifying desiredelectronic media content. (Step 202) For example, one of users 102 mayinteract with web servers 104 and/or 152 to request a desired electronicmedia content item over the Internet 101. The request may be made by auser starting to type a query into a search box, completing the typingof a query into the search box, or selecting a button or other visualuser element, etc. corresponding to a name or topic of electronic mediacontent. In one embodiment, when a user starts to type the name of awebsite, television channel, or television show into the query box, theprogramming guide may display a two-dimensional grid of search resultsthat are all categorized in relation to that television channel or show,without displaying additional columns of unrelated content. Resultslisted in the grid of related content could be ranked or sequencedaccording to relevancy, recency, popularity, etc. Either or both of webservers 104, 152 may then send instructions to cause the display thedesired media content item to the user 102 by, for example, sending orstreaming a file over the Internet 101. (Step 204) Web servers 104 maythen send the request or an identifier associated with the desired mediacontent item to back-end servers 106. (Step 206) For example, webservers 104 may send a name or ID number associated with the desiredmedia content item to back-end servers 106. In one exemplary embodiment,the user 102 requests the content from web servers 104, which retrieveit from one or both of the web servers 152 and content database 154. Webservers 104 then send an ID of the requested content to back-end servers106. In an alternative embodiment, web servers 104 simply forward therequests from users 102 to the back-end servers 106.

Optionally, one or more of the above-described steps may be modified orskipped. For example, in certain embodiments, requests from users 102 orassociated ID numbers may be sent to back-end servers 106 (step 206)without displaying the desired electronic media content (step 204).Additionally, or alternatively, the display of the desired electronicmedia content (step 204) may be performed only in response to aselection or input from the user, such as after displaying thetwo-dimensional grid of the sorted recommended content (see step 210).

Upon the back-end servers 106 receiving a request or an ID of thedesired content, back-end servers 106 may interface with intelligencedatabase 108. For example, method 200 may further comprise receiving, bythe web servers 104, sorted recommended content from the back-endservers 106 based on the desired content. (Step 208) For example, aswill be described in more detail below, back-end servers 106 may call onintelligence database 108 to look-up one or more of: user preferenceinformation, user web history information, clickthru information,content item information, and content group information. Back-endservers 106 may then execute two collaborative filters or rankingalgorithms based on the desired content and the information stored inthe intelligence database 108. The output of the two collaborativefilters may include a sorted subset of available content groups and asorted subset of available content items for each of the groups, whichmay be sent to web servers 104. Web servers 104 may then sendinstructions to cause the display of the sorted recommended content tothe user in a two-dimensional grid (Step 210).

FIG. 3 depicts another exemplary method 300 for displaying electronicmedia content over the Internet. Similar to method 200, method 300 mayinclude receiving an input from a user. (Step 302) The input may includea request for desired electronic media content, as in method 200, or itmay also include user preference or response information (e.g., “I likefootball.”). Over time, user inputs may be collected and stored inintelligence database 108, in association with the user's IP address orother unique identifier. In addition, or alternatively, to a request forvideo content or other electronic media content, the user input may alsoinclude a request for a web page, a search query, or a topic ofinterest. Alternatively, the user may simply access web servers 104 toobtain recommended content, and the last URL visited by the user may beused as an input for looking-up indexed web history. In other words, theURL from which the user traveled to a URL hosted by the web servers maybe used as a user input. In one embodiment, textual, video, audio,image, or meta data content associated with the last URL may be used asthe user input.

Upon receipt of one or more inputs from a user, method 300 may includelooking-up an indexed web history information from intelligence database108, based on the user input (Step 304) The indexed web historyinformation may include web impression data, click data, action data,and/or conversion data. The indexed web history information may alsoinclude content item information and content group information. Method300 may then include selecting and sorting a subset of available contentgroups based on the user input and the indexed web history. (Step 306)For example, method 300 may include executing the collaborative filterused for populating the horizontal content group axis, as described inmore detail below. Method 300 may also include, for each selectedcontent group, selecting and sorting a subset of available content inthat group, based on the user input and the indexed web history, byexecuting the collaborative filter used for populating the verticalcontent item axis, as described in more detail below. (Step 308) Method300 may then include instructing the display of the selected and sortedcontent groups along a first (e.g., horizontal) axis of the grid (Step310); and instructing the display of the selected and sorted availablecontent for each group along a second (e.g., vertical) axis for thegrid. In certain embodiments, the grid is a two-dimensional WPG grid. Ofcourse, other embodiments are possible and the axes of the grid may beswitched, such that content groups are displayed along the vertical axisand content items are displayed along a horizontal axis for each contentgroup.

FIGS. 4A and 4B depict exemplary methodologies for selecting subsets ofcontent groups and available content items, for displaying electronicmedia over the Internet. As represented in FIG. 4A, exemplary methodsconsistent with the present disclosure (including methods 200 and 300)may include generating a subset of content groups including the union ofthose content groups desired or liked by the user and those contentgroups desired or liked by other viewers of the last video. The subsetof content groups may then be ranked by a content group collaborativefilter as described below, and used to populate a horizontal axis of aWPG grid.

As represented in FIG. 4B, exemplary methods consistent with the presentdisclosure (including methods 200 and 300) may further includegenerating a subset of content items for each content group from theunion of those videos in the content group and those videos liked and/orviewed by other viewers of the last video. The subset of content itemsmay then be ranked by a content item collaborative filter as describedbelow, and used to populate a vertical axis of the WPG grid for eachcontent group.

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary two-dimensional WPG grid for displayingelectronic media over the Internet, consistent with embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In this example, the horizontal axis is populatedwith the content groups or categories: “Morning Talk,” “Comedy,” “LateNight,” and “Drama.” However, there may be many more categories ofcontent that the WPG could be populated with other than these four. Theselection of categories may be performed using a content groupcollaborative filter, which may be an algorithm for selecting a subsetof categories based on categories the user desires or likes and othercategories of videos watched and/or liked by other viewers of the lastvideo watched by a user. Further refinements to the selection ofcategories could be based on the most watched categories of content inthe user's social circle (e.g. buddy list), or the history of categoriesof videos the user has watched.

The vertical axes for each content group displayed in FIG. 5 may bepopulated with suggested videos within each content group, based on analgorithm that incorporates another collaborative filter. In oneembodiment, the collaborative filter may select a subset of videos inthe same category that were viewed by other viewers of the last video.In other words, the most recently watched video prior to opening theWPG, may be used as the input to a collaborative filter that returns alist of videos (in the same category) watched by other users who viewedthe same initial video. Exemplary embodiments of collaborative filterswill now be described for use in populating the horizontal axis andvertical axis of a two-dimensional WPG.

Horizontal Axis

In various embodiment of the present disclosure, a first collaborativefilter, or ranking algorithm may be used to select and order the contentgroups used to populate the horizontal axis of the grid. In oneembodiment, the type of grouping includes subject-matter categories towhich the content items belong. For example, categories could include:sports, news, comedy, drama, thriller, etc. In other embodiments, thetype of grouping includes categorization by producers, distributors,actors, artists, websites, or any other attribute that is common to morethan one content item. In one embodiment, a content item can belong tomore than one group within a type of group. By way of example, a contentitem could be classified as both news and comedy if it intrinsically haselements of each. Further, a type of group may have an associatedtaxonomy. For example, a content item may belong to the group sports andalso to the group football, a subgroup of sports.

In one embodiment, the collaborative filter, or ranking algorithm, usedto sort order the content groups on a horizontal axis of thenavigational grid may include a linear combination of one or morevariables including: (1) recency (G_(r)), (2) clickthru popularity(G_(c)), (3) editorial popularity (G_(e)), (4) rank popularity (G_(rp)),(5) taxonomic distance (G_(td)), and (6) collaborative filtering(G_(d)). In one embodiment, each variable may be assigned a weightedvalue (W_(i)), and the content groups may be presented in order by groupranking (G_(T)), according to the following:G _(T) =W _(r) G _(r) +W _(c) G _(c) +W _(e) G _(e) +W _(rp) G _(rp) +W_(id) G _(id) +W _(cf) G _(cf)

where: 0<G_(i)<1

and: 1=W_(r)+W_(c)+W_(e)+W_(rp)+W_(id)+W_(id)+W_(off)

0<G_(T)<1

It will be appreciated that the variables below are described generally.Any term used to determine G_(T) for the horizontal axis couldpotentially be re-purposed for use on the vertical axis (or viceversa)—or for any other axis in the multi-dimensional case. For purposesof illustration, the group type “Category” is used in the followingexamples.

Term 1: Recency (W_(r)G_(r))

The recency ranking of a content group may be calculated by normalizingthe number of new content items in a group. For example, in the fallmore new videos are added to the category “football” than in the summer.Likewise, in the summer more new videos are added to the category“baseball”. The recency term may therefore be used to affect the rankingscheme by prioritizing categories that have more new content itemscompared to the steady state of the group.

Term 2: Clickthru Popularity (W_(c)G_(c))

The clickthru popularity of a content group may be calculated bynormalizing the number of times content items belonging to a givencontent group are viewed. For example, if videos in the “music” categoryare viewed (clicked on) more often than videos in the “news” category,the “music” category may receive a relative boost. A view of content orgrouping of content is determined by a linear combination of weightedsignals including the user selecting the content, the user watching theentire content, the time spent by the user hovering over an image orother representation of the content etc.

Term 3: Editorial Popularity (W_(e)G_(e))

The editorial popularity of a content group may be the simple averagerating given to a content group by a group of editors. For example, aneditor may wish to boost a given category in the algorithm based on howpopular the content is expected to be. This could be based on expectedviewership for known brand names, previous Neilsen ratings, etc. Themost popular content should approach G_(e)=1. Unknown or unpopularcontent should approach G_(e)=0. Optionally, the editorial popularityrank may also have a time decay component to give weight or more weightto more recent popularity information.

Term 4: Rank Popularity (W_(rp)G_(rp))

The rank popularity of a content group is calculated by normalizing theaverage number of times the content group appears in the first n_(i)content items returned using the ranking scheme described below forselecting content items, when the group restriction is not applied. Inother words, R_(T) is calculated as described below for n_(i) contentitems, but without the restriction that all content items must belong tothe same group. The group restriction may be applied on the horizontalaxis in order to populate a content group column. The popularity ofcontent groups may be calculated by iterating across all the items. Forexample, given 100 content items with the highest value of R_(T), 60 maybelong to the category “music,” 30 to the category “news,” and 10 to thecategory “sports.” In this case, G_(rp) equals 0.6, 0.3, 0.1 for thecategories “music,” “news,” and “sports,” respectively.

Term 5: Taxonomic Distance (W_(cf)G_(cf))

The taxonomic distance between content groups may have a positive ornegative influence on the rank of a group when compared to anothergroup. For example, if the first (or default category) is sports, thenchild categories of sports (e.g. football and baseball) should be rankedlower than siblings of the category, sports (e.g. news).

Term 6: Collaborative Filter (W_(cf)G_(cf))

The collaborative filter term may be calculated for a content group insubstantially the same way as will be described below in relation to thevertical axis content items, except that content groups are used inplace of content items.

Vertical Axis

In one embodiment, the vertical axis of the navigation grid may bepopulated for each selected content group with a list of content itemsthat may include any combination of: Web videos, single televisionshows, a television series, movies, images, audio dips, streaming media,or web sites. The content items may be assigned to one or more of thecontent groups ranked in the horizontal axis and ordered within a groupalong the vertical axis using a ranking algorithm as described below.

In one embodiment, the ranking algorithm used to order the content itemsmay be a linear combination of several weighted variables including: (1)recency (R_(r)), (2) clickthru popularity (R_(c)), (3) editorialpopularity (R_(e)), (4) video quality (R_(v)), (5) textual relevance(R_(t)), (6) video (image and audio) relevance (R_(cr)), (7) user rating(R_(ur)), and (8) collaborative filtering (R_(cf)). In one embodiment,each variable is assigned a weighted value (W_(i)), and each contentitem is given a ranking value R_(T) according to the following:R _(t) =W _(r) R _(r) +W _(c) R _(c) +W _(e) R _(e) +W _(v) R _(v) +W_(t) R _(t) +W _(cr) R _(cr) +W _(ur) R _(ur) +W _(cf) R _(cf)

where: 0<R_(i)<1

and: 1=W_(r)+W_(e)+W_(c)+W_(v)+W_(i)+W_(cr)+W_(ur)+W_(cf)

0<R_(T)<1

As described below, the textual relevance, video relevance, andcollaborative filtering terms may be a function of both the content itemand/or website from which the navigation grid was invoked and/or thehistory of content items viewed by the user. For example, collaborativefiltering R_(cf) depends on the history of content items the user hasviewed. Text relevancy, R_(t), is determined by searching for contentitems with similar text to the metadata associated with the website orprevious content item from which the navigation grid was launched. Videorelevancy, R_(v,), is determined by searching for content items withsimilar audio or image content as the previous content item from whichthe navigation grid was launched.

In one embodiment, the term weights, W_(i), are adjusted depending oncontext. For example, if the navigation grid is used in a news context,the recency term, R_(r), will have relatively more weight than the otherterms in the ranking scheme. In one embodiment, each of the exemplaryweighted variables may be defined substantially as follows:

Term 1: Recency Ranking:

As with recency of content groups, the recency ranking of a content itemmay be used to prioritize newer content items compared to the averageaged content items, as follows:

$R_{r}\left\{ \begin{matrix}{{1 - {\frac{1}{t_{e}}\left( {d_{c} - d_{F}} \right)}},} & {{{For}\mspace{14mu}\left( {d_{c} - d_{F}} \right)} < t_{e}} \\{0,} & {{{For}\mspace{14mu}\left( {d_{c} - d_{F}} \right)} > t_{e}}\end{matrix} \right.$

where:

t_(e)=expiration time (perhaps ˜30 days)

d_(c)=current date

d_(F)=date found

Term 2: Clickthru Popularity Ranking:

Similar to clickthru ranking for content groups, the clickthru rankingof a content item may be used to prioritize more popular content itemscompared to average-popularity content items, based on a clickthrupopularity ranking, R_(c), calculated as follows:R _(c) =W _(cpm) R _(cpm) +W _(cph) R _(cph) +W _(cpd) R _(cpd), where

${R_{cpm} = {{{clicks}\mspace{14mu}{per}\mspace{14mu}{minute}\mspace{14mu}{ranking}} = \frac{CPM}{\underset{{over}\mspace{14mu}{all}\mspace{14mu}{items}}{{Max}({cpm})}}}},\left( {0 < R_{cpm} < 1} \right)$${R_{cph} = {{{clicks}\mspace{14mu}{per}\mspace{14mu}{hour}\mspace{14mu}{ranking}} = \frac{CPH}{\underset{{over}\mspace{14mu}{all}\mspace{14mu}{items}}{{Max}({cph})}}}},\left( {0 < R_{cph} < 1} \right)$${R_{cpd} = {{{clicks}\mspace{14mu}{per}\mspace{14mu}{day}\mspace{14mu}{ranking}} = \frac{CPD}{\underset{{over}\mspace{14mu}{all}\mspace{14mu}{items}}{{Max}({cpd})}}}},\left( {0 < R_{cpd} < 1} \right)$

and

1=W_(cpm)+W_(cph)+W_(cpd)

To implement the clickthru popularity rating, the following fields maybe stored in relation to each content item, e.g., video:

TOTAL_CLICKS=the running tally of clicks that this item has seen sincefound;

CPM=clicks per minute;

CPM_COUNT_BUFFER=running tally of clicks on this item sinceCPM_LAST_CALC;

CPM_LAST_CALC=the time when CPM was last calculated and CPM_COUNT_BUFFERwas flushed;

Similarly: CPH, CPH_COUNT_BUFFER, CPH_LAST_CALC are calculated forclicks-per-hour, and CPD, CPD_COUNT_BUFFER, CPD_LAST_CALC are calculatedfor clicks-per-day.

These fields can be calculated and updated as follows:

For every user with cookies enabled on their web browser or otherapplication, each clicked item is stored anonymously in a cookie. Upon asubsequent request to system 100 and/or third-party content provider 150(during that same session), the clickthru data in the cookie isprocessed as follows:

For every item clicked, increment TOTAL_CLICKS, CPM_COUNT_BUFFER,CPH_COUNT_BUFFER, and CPD_COUNT_BUFFER by 1.

For CPM, if CURRENT_TIME−CPM_LAST_CALL>1 minute;

CPM=CPM_COUNT_BUFFER/(CURRRENT_TIME−CPM_LAST_CALC)

reset CPM_COUNT_BUFFER to 0.

set CPM_LAST_CALC to CURRENT_TIME

Increment values for CPD and CPH in a similar manner.

Once this is complete, the user's browser cookie may be flushed toeliminate all cached clickthrus.

Term 3: Editorial Popularity Ranking:

Each content item may be assigned a value for “editorial rank” based onhow popular the content is expected to be. This could be based onexpected viewership for known brand names, previous Neilsen ratings,etc. The most popular content should approach R_(e)=1. Unknown orunpopular content should approach R_(e)=0. Optionally, the editorialpopularity rank may also have a time decay component to give weight ormore weight to more recent popularity information.

Term 4: Video Quality (R_(v))

The video quality R_(v) of a content item may be determined andincorporated into the ranking such that higher quality videos areprioritized over lower quality videos. For example, videos may be rankedbased on their bit rate responsiveness, resolution, or any othersuitable indicator of video quality.

Term 5: Text Relevance (W_(t)R_(t))

The webpage that the WPG navigation grid is launched from and the lastvideo that was played by the user may serve to provide context andtextual metadata that can be used to select new groups for thehorizontal axis, as well as new items to display in the vertical axisbased on a text similarity score. In order to calculate R_(t), thefollowing steps may be performed. Firstly, all the textual metadataassociated with the webpage or last video watched may be collected. Eachword in the textual metadata may be collected from a field of that item,i.e., title or description. Each item may have a particular hierarchy offields that represents the importance of that field to the score givenfor the word similarity. This may represent the field importance weightfw_(i), and Σ_(i)(fw_(i))=1.

For each word collected, the method may first determine if the word is acommon word, or a stop word. If it is, it may be discarded for thepurpose of this calculation. The method may then determine thesignificance of the word for use in the calculation, by counting thenumber of times the word occurs in each field of the metadata, dividingby the total length of the field, multiplying by the field importanceweight, and adding this term up for each field. This will provide a wordsignificance score, as follows:w _(s)=Σ_(i)(fw _(I)*count(w,f _(i))/length(f _(i))).

The method may then include ranking the words by word significance scorein descending order. The top n words in this ranking will be an n-tuplet(w₁, w₂ . . . w_(n)) that represents the main concepts for this item.One can repeat this for phrases, and if phrases with multiple wordsappear more than once, then they are given a higher importanceproportional to their length.

Let “B” be the set of all items that are available to be matched, andlet a∈B be the item metadata used as the seed to calculate the textrelevancy term for every b∈B. For each b∈B, calculate the significantword n-tuplet as detailed above. Calculate the significant word n-tupletfor “a” as well. Then calculate the similarity score between then-tuplets “a” and “b” as follows:

Let a_(i) be a word at index I in the n-tuplet a. Then, if a_(i)=b_(j),i.e., the word a_(i) is at the index j in the n-tuplet b, then thedistance score between the same word in the n-tuplets is 1−|i−j|/n. Thisdistance is a maximum of 1, if the word is at the same position in bothn-tuplets. If the word is position 1 in a and in position n in b, thenthe score will be 1/n, which is the lowest non-zero distance scorepossible. The similarity score may then be obtained by summing over allthe words in the n-tuplet a, and dividing by 1/n, as follows:R _(t) =S(a,b)=(1/n)Σ_(a)(1−|i−j|/n)

This score will be 1 if the n-tuplets are exactly the same. If there areno words in common, then the score will be 0. This score depends largelyon the initial calculation of the significant word n-tuplets, and theweights given to each field of the item. Textual relevance can beextended to include metadata from the website's domain or blog.

Term 6: Video (Image and Audio) Relevance (R_(cr))

Video relevancy, R_(v) _(i) , may be determined by searching for contentitems with similar audio or image content as the previous content itemfrom which the navigation grid was launched.

Term 7: User Rating (R_(ur))

User rating, R_(ur), may be calculated based on feedback received by auser over time. For example, a user may from time to time indicate alevel of interest in various content.

Term 8: Collaborative Filter (W_(cf)R_(cf))

In order to calculate R_(cf), the following steps are performed. Alisting of videos, individual television shows, or a television seriesthat a user has watched (collectively viewed items) is stored in a datarepository, such as intelligence database 108. When the navigation gridis invoked, the most recent n_(i) viewed items is used as the input forrecommending other viewed items using a collaborative filer. In oneembodiment, R_(cf) is calculated on per user basis using the followingscheme.

First, calculate the distance between user i and all other users, j:D_(i,j)=distance between user i+j=(n_(i)−n_(ij))/n_(i), where n_(i) isthe number of viewed items user i has stored, and n_(i,j) is the numberof user i's viewed items that match viewed items of user j. If all ofuser i's viewed items match a viewed item of user j, then D_(i,j)=0. Ifnone match, D_(i,j)=1. Similarly, a measure of the similarity betweenuser i and j can be calculated as follows:

S_(i,j)=similarity between users i and j=(1−D_(ij)), where S_(i,j)=1when the users are completely similar, and 0 when there are no similarviewed items between users.

Second, select the K-Nearest Neighbors to user i based on the similarityranking. For example, assuming user i has three viewed items:

For. User i

Viewed Items: ITEMID=103; ITEMID=107; ITEMID=112

n_(i)=3

-   -   K-Nearest Neighbors can be selected as follows:

User ID (j) n_(i,j) D_(i,j) S_(i,j) Viewed Items ID 1 1 0.66 0.33 101,102, 103, 110, 104 2 2 0.33 0.66 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 3 0 1 0 101 4 30 1 103, 104, 107, 112 5 2 0.33 0.66 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112 6 10.66 0.33 103, 104Re-ranking the users by decreasing similarity:

Viewed Items Not Already Stored User ID S_(i,j) by User i 4 1 104K-Nearest 2 0.66 104, 105, 106 Neighbors, {open oversize brace} 5 0.66106, 109, 110, 111 where K = 4 1 0.33 101, 102, 110, 104 6 0.33 104 3 0101

From this ordered list, the K-Nearest Neighbors are the first K items(rows in the previous table).

Third, the popularity of each item is determined from the K-NearestNeighbors. This can be calculated from the fraction of the K neighborsthat have item I in their viewed item list.

Specifically:

KNN=K−Nearest Neighbors (for K=4):

User ID Similarity to User i Unviewed Items by User i 4 1   104 2 0.66104, 105, 106 5 0.66 106, 109, 110, 111 1 0.33 101, 102, 110, 104$\quad\begin{matrix}{P_{i} =} & {{popularity}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{item}\mspace{14mu} I} & {= \frac{{number}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{occurrences}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{item}\mspace{14mu} I}{K}} \\\; & {{among}\mspace{14mu} K\text{-}{Nearest}} & \; \\\; & {{Neighbors}\mspace{14mu}{to}\mspace{14mu}{user}\mspace{14mu} i} & \;\end{matrix}$Therefore,

Users with Item ID This Item P_(l) S_(max l) 104 4, 2, 1 0.75 1 106 2, 50.5 0.66 110 5, 1 0.5 0.66 105 2 0.25 0.66 109 5 0.25 0.66 111 5 0.250.66 101 1 0.25 0.33 102 1 0.25 0.33

Where: S_(max,I)=Maximum similarity across all users with item I intheir viewed item list. For example, Item Id 105 has a S_(max) of 0.66because it appears in the second row of KNN similarity table for User i.And, Popularity=1 when all KNN contain item I, and P₁=0 when no KNNcontain item I.

Fourth, the rank of each item I is calculated using a weighted sum of P₁and S_(max I). The weighting factor is calculated as a function of n_(i)since the relative importance of user similarity, as compared topopularity, increases with the number of viewed items. In other words,if a user has viewed only one item, n_(j)=1, then the similarity will beeither 0 or 1, and therefore it does not have much meaning. Therefore,when n_(i) is small, similarity should be weighed less than popularity.

For a given item I:R _(cf) =W _(sim)(S _(max,I))+(1−W _(sim))P _(I),

where:

$W_{sim} = {{{similarity}\mspace{14mu}{weighting}\mspace{14mu}{factor}} = {C_{maxsim}\left( {1 - \frac{1}{1 + n_{i}}} \right)}}$

where:

0≤C_(max sim)≤1

In other words. R_(cf) is a weighted sum of the maximum user similarityfor item I and the popularity of item I among KNN such that 0≤R_(cf)≤1.C_(max sim) should be set to the value that the similarity weightingfactor should approach as n_(i) becomes large. Now, for each new item inKNN, we can calculate the Rank R_(cf):

Item ID P_(l) S_(max l) R_(cf,l) 104 .75 1 0.86 106 .5 0.66 0.57 110 .50.66 0.57 105 .25 0.66 0.43 109 .25 0.66 0.43 111 .25 0.66 0.43 101 .250.33 0.29 102 .25 0.33 0.29 Assume C_(max sim) = 0.6. For n_(i) = 3:

 W_(sim) = 0.45 (1 − W_(sim)) = 0.55

Finally, in order to reduce the number of computations required toevaluate the collaborative filter term, a number of techniques can beemployed. By way of example, additional data about the user (gender,nationality, location, social graph) may be used to constrain the numberof user comparisons when calculating the distance D_(i,j).

If the navigation grid is launched from a web page that does not containa video, the text relevancy term, R_(t) is a function of the content ofthe web page, and the collaborative filter term, R_(cf), is a functionof the co-visitation of users who have viewed both the web page andspecific videos on the web. By way of example, if a user visits a webpage and also watches a series of videos, a subsequent visitor to theweb page may be interested in those same videos. A collaborative filterassociating web pages and videos may be used to evaluate the R_(cf) termin this case.

In addition to the textual relevance of a given web page and theco-visitation of a given web page with other specific videos on the web,additional context can be derived from the entire website (an entire webdomain or a blog) in a similar manner. For example, R_(t) issupplemented with text relevant to the entire website. R_(cf) includesco-visitation of the website itself with other specific videos on theweb.

If the navigation grid is launched outside of any context (that is,nothing is known about either the user or the last webpage/videoviewed), then the relevance and collaborative filter terms evaluate to 0and do not contribute to the ranking of videos.

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary embodiment of a three-dimensional “WPG cube”that includes an additional dimension of content information. Forexample, the WPG cube may display any additional layer of informationabout content otherwise displayed in the two-dimensional grid, such asepisode options (as depicted), specific scenes or chapters of thecontent, a picture or logo associated with the content, etc. In oneembodiment, the WPG cube may consist of a plurality of smaller boxes,that can be individually manipulated with each box representing acontent item. Each box may have a different type or layer of contentdisplayed on one of its six faces. A user may view the content bydispensing with content boxes that the user does not wish to view, orrotating or flipping over boxes to see content information on variousfaces of each box. In one embodiment, the boxes may be displayed in atranslucent manner, and the user may selectively view additionalinformation by zooming in towards and/or away from the boxes.

Thus, in either of the exemplary embodiments depicted in FIGS. 5 and 6 ,the WPG may be displayed in association with a graphical user interface(GUI) having visual elements that the user can select and manipulateusing an input device. For instance, the WPG may be displayed inassociation with scroll bars, arrows, “radio” buttons, search fields,and/or any other element that the user can manipulate to adjust adisplay of the WPG. The input device used by the user may include amouse, keyboard, touch-screen, accelerometer, remote control, mobiledevice, joystick, and/or video game controller.

FIG. 7 shows a screenshot of a web programming grid, in which a query ina search bar yields query-related results and navigational tab. Forexample, when a user types “sports” into a query bar, sports-relatedvideos populate the two dimensional grid, and a sports-relatednavigational tab appears in the top left-hand corner of the grid. A usermay select a method of sequencing or ranking videos or media contentpopulating the grid, e.g., by “top ranked,” “category,” “show title,” orany other category such as “most comments,” “highest quality,” etc. Inone embodiment, when a user selects a video in the grid, thesports-related navigational tab will remain in place even though a usermay be directed to a video-specific web page, so the user can easilynavigate back to the sports-related search results page. Likewise, FIG.8 shows a screenshot of a web programming grid, in which a query in asearch bar yields query-related results and navigational tab. In thisexemplary embodiment, the screenshot displays “tv”-related searchresults. Of course, the web programming guide may display any suitabletype of electronic media content in a grid.

FIG. 9 shows a screenshot of a web programming guide in which a searchbar starts displaying possible queries upon a partial entry of text.Such a search bar display may be used in relation to any of theembodiments described herein. In one embodiment, upon typing partialtext into the search bar, the grid may be populated passed on thepartial text. Thus, as additional text is entered, the selection ofmedia content in the grid may change to reflect the likely interests ofthe user entering the query.

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate exemplary controls for navigating through aweb programming guide, consistent with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In these examples, arrow keys serve to navigate through thegrid, without visually displaying a grid. As shown in FIG. 10B, the usermay only view a single media piece within the user's viewport, but maybe presented with additional content as if that content had beenpreviously displayed above, below, or to the left or right from thepreviously displayed content.

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate the limitless dimensions available byintroducing key combinations. For example, FIGS. 11A and 11B depict how“Left/Right” arrows may represent the first dimension on the X axis,“Up/Down” arrows may represent the second dimension on the Y axis,“Ctrl+Up/Ctrl+Down” keystrokes may represent the third dimension on theZ axis, and “Ctrl+Left/Ctrl+Right” etc. keystrokes may representinfinitely deep dimensional possibilities.

FIGS. 12A-12C illustrate exemplary mechanisms for user interfaces. Theuser interfaces of FIGS. 12A-12C may be implemented consistent with thearrow keys of FIGS. 11A and 11B, but controlled by alternativemechanisms, such as the click and drag of a mouse, or on touch sensitivedevices, the sliding of a finger. Depending on the case, multiple buttonclicks or multiple finger touches may switch the dimension beingnavigated, extending the paradigm beyond two dimensions.

FIGS. 13A and 13B illustrate exemplary responses of the system todirectionality within a dimension, depending on prior actions. Just as a“channel surfer” could proceed to the “next video” by clicking upward ordownward, directionality within the exemplary web programming guidedescribed herein may be contextually dependent.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may include a method or process,an apparatus or system, or computer software on a computer medium. It isintended that various modifications may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the following claims. For example, advantageousresults still could be achieved if steps of the disclosed techniqueswere performed in a different order and/or if components in thedisclosed systems were combined in a different manner and/or replaced orsupplemented by other components. Other implementations are within thescope of the following exemplary claims.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made to the systems and methodsdisclosed herein. It is intended that the disclosed embodiments andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of thepresent disclosure being indicated by the following claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for displaying electronic media contentto one or more users, the method comprising operations performed by atleast one processor, the operations comprising: receiving, at aprocessor of a web server, input from a user, the input including one ofa search request for electronic media content and a URL address of a webpage previously visited by the user; analyzing an indexed web history ofthe user and a plurality of other users based on the received input,wherein the indexed web history includes cookie data collected from webbrowsers of the user and the plurality of other users, the cookie dataincluding content click data of content viewed by the user and theplurality of other users; selecting a subset of available content groupsbased on the received input and the indexed web history; selecting asubset of available content for each available content group, of thesubset of available content groups, based on the user input and thecollected cookie data, wherein the subset of available content includescontent viewed by other viewers of a last video watched by the user;calculating a weighted sum of a maximum user similarity between the userand the plurality of other users for the subset of available content byapplying a K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm to the cookie data collectedfrom the web browsers of the user and the plurality of other users; andproviding instructions to display, to the user, a three dimensional (3D)cube comprising a multi-dimensional grid, the 3D cube including aplurality of smaller interactive cubes, each interactive cube beingassociated with a corresponding content of the subset of availablecontent, and being configured to be rotated or flipped to allow the userto interact with content information associated with the correspondingcontent of the subset of available content, the instructions to displayfurther including: the subset of available content groups sorted along afirst axis of the multi-dimensional grid in a first ranking order basedon the calculated weighted sum and at least one of popularity andrecency of each available content group, of the subset of availablecontent groups, and the subset of available content sorted along asecond axis of the multi-dimensional grid in a second ranking orderbased on the calculated weighted sum and a video quality of videocontent in the subset of available content, the video quality beingbased on at least one of a respective bit rate responsiveness and aresolution associated with the video content in the subset of availablecontent.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic media contentcomprises video content, and the search request specifies at least aportion of the video content that the user desires to watch.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the indexed web history includes one or moreof: impression data, action data, conversion data, user information,content information, and content group information.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first ranking order of the subset of availablecontent groups includes a ranking value calculated based on one or moreof editorial popularity, rank popularity, and taxonomic distance ofavailable content groups, of the subset of available content groups,based on the indexed web history.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thesecond ranking order of the subset of available content includes aranking value calculated based on one or more of: recency, clickthrupopularity, editorial popularity, textual relevance, video relevance,and user rating of available content, of the subset of availablecontent, based on the indexed web history.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the subset of available content groups includes content groupsdesired or liked by the user and content groups desired or liked byother viewers of the last video watched by the user.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the content information includes one or more of episodeoptions of the corresponding content, specific scenes or chapters of thecorresponding content, and a picture or logo associated with thecorresponding content.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein theinstructions to display further include displaying the multi-dimensionalgrid via a graphical user interface that the user can select andmanipulate using an input device.
 9. A system for displaying electronicmultimedia content on the Internet to a user, the system comprising: astorage device configured to store instructions; and at least oneprocessor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method,the method including: receiving, at a processor of a web server, inputfrom a user, the input including one of a search request for electronicmedia content and a URL address of a web page previously visited by theuser; analyzing an indexed web history of the user and a plurality ofother users based on the received input, wherein the indexed web historyincludes cookie data collected from web browsers of the user and theplurality of other users, the cookie data including content click dataof content viewed by the user and the plurality of other users;selecting a subset of available content groups based on the receivedinput and the indexed web history; selecting a subset of availablecontent for each available content group, of the subset of availablecontent groups, based on the user input and the collected cookie data,wherein the subset includes content viewed by other viewers of a lastvideo watched by the user; calculating a weighted sum of a maximum usersimilarity between the user and the plurality of other users for thesubset of available content by applying a K-Nearest Neighbor algorithmto the collected cookie data; and providing instructions to display, tothe user, a three dimensional (3D) cube comprising a multi-dimensionalgrid, the 3D cube including a plurality of smaller interactive cubes,each interactive cube being associated with a corresponding content ofthe subset of available content, and being configured to be rotated orflipped to allow the user to interact with content informationassociated with the corresponding content of the subset of availablecontent, the instructions to display further including: the subset ofavailable content groups sorted along a first axis of amulti-dimensional grid in a first ranking order based on the calculatedweighted sum and at least one of popularity and recency of eachavailable content group, of the subset of available content groups, andthe subset of available content sorted along a second axis of themulti-dimensional grid in a second ranking order based on the calculatedweighted sum and a video quality of video content in the subset ofavailable content, the video quality being based on at least one of arespective bit rate responsiveness and a resolution associated with thevideo content in the subset of available content.
 10. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the electronic media content comprises video content,and the search request specifies at least a portion of video contentthat the user desires to watch.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein theindexed web history includes one or more of: impression data, actiondata, conversion data, user information, content information, andcontent group information.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the firstranking order of the subset of available content groups includes aranking value calculated based on one or more of editorial popularity,rank popularity, and taxonomic distance of available content groups, ofthe subset of available content groups, based on the indexed webhistory.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein the second ranking order ofthe subset of available content includes a ranking value calculatedbased on one or more of: recency, clickthru popularity, editorialpopularity, textual relevance, video relevance, and user rating ofavailable content, of the subset of available content, based on theindexed web history.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the subset ofavailable content groups includes content groups desired or liked by theuser and content groups desired or liked by other viewers of the lastvideo watched by the user.
 15. The system of claim 9, wherein thecontent information includes one or more of episode options of thecorresponding available content, specific scenes or chapters of thecorresponding available content, and a picture or logo associated withthe corresponding available content.
 16. The system of claim 9, whereinthe instructions to display further include displaying themulti-dimensional grid via a graphical user interface that the user canselect and manipulate the multi-dimensional grid using an input device.